tom_b

59 ms·

451.
by tom_b 17y ago
I enjoyed it, even if it makes my head spin. I'm several years from my last reading of 'Applied Cryptography' and have never really gone into the deep end of that pool. So what, it [edit: meaning the blog article] is a fun read of hacking
452.
by tom_b 17y ago
+1 for bringing up the hard part. I've worked on several big data warehouse projects where it was tough to make business managers understand that even the simplest correlations between different fact types across dimensions (using those te
453.
by tom_b 17y ago
It's worth thinking more about the "Faculty members like to do research" reason. It reminded me of habits and processes I've seen in non CS departments at my local (large) university. It's extremely common for students to work as TAs or as
454.
by tom_b 17y ago
The title is a little off. From the article: "The work is sometimes frustrating . . . And it frequently requires complex thinking." Sound familiar? What is really being discussed is the line where work becomes about craftsmanship. As sof
455.
by tom_b 17y ago
I have the one pictured here ( http://coffeegeek.com/reviews/accessories/stovetopfrother/ar... ). I've had two of these - the first somehow broke at the thumb handle part internally, but it was replaced for free. The one thing I don't like
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by tom_b 17y ago
I second the original book. It's a good read and offers up a simple recipe for finding/building flow experiences. I suspect most hackers already have experienced flow and that maybe this experience is what keeps hacking such an addictive a
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by tom_b 17y ago
+1 for mentioning the arbitrary curve-based ranking common in big companies. Tightly coupling salary/bonuses to performance reviews with this type of system is a disaster. Unfortunately, my experience is that most managers in such a system
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by tom_b 17y ago
There seem to be echoes of what I've seen in kdb+ ( http://kx.com/Products/kdb+.php ) in this offering from IBM. I know that kdb+ is an entrenched part of the software developed internally at financial companies to deal with huge streaming
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by tom_b 17y ago
I'm a espresso fan. A double or triple shot americano to start the day is awesome, particularly when the kids (toddlers) have kept Mom and Dad up half the night. I use a Gaggia Classic espresso maker (bought used on ebay for a decent price
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by tom_b 17y ago
I'm personally going to work through Programming Language Pragmatics. I want to have a better foundation in language paradigms, plus fill a hole in my education (no, zero, nada, real exposure to compiler design). I'll also be learning more
461.
by tom_b 17y ago
Ugh. I had one tech-staffing company recruiter call all my references, pepper them with questions regarding their experience, ask for their resumes and references as well. I really had hoped to have a better experience with tech staffing c
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by tom_b 17y ago
If you need to deal with hierarchies in SQL, look into nested sets. It allows you to make a single db call to retrieve a full set of parent/child related items. It's basically an augmented data structure (adding a left/right value pair to
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by tom_b 17y ago
I would also recommend checking out Stephen Few's books (Information Dashboard Design and/or Show Me the Numbers) for quick and useful guidelines on visually communicating data. Few is a big advocate of Tufte's work and books, and he has a
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by tom_b 17y ago
The old traditional path I suppose . . . Years ago, began hacking on home computer (not a PC, but something called a C64, for the curious). Went to college, wrong major, quit . . . bounced around, bad jobs. Started doing some db hacking i
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by tom_b 17y ago
My general experience is the opposite re: crossing fields - I run across many people doing software dev with a MS or PhD in something else. Just this past week I interviewed at a research institute where one of the primary developers had a
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by tom_b 17y ago
I google more before deciding how to code to a specific problem. I want to understand the problem better, see how it's been approached by others, if there are standard approaches, etc. This helps me crystallize my thoughts and get quick p
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by tom_b 17y ago
I also think there are established communities (and codebases) that have existed for decades built around some of these products (like Oracle or DB2 on the mainframe). This is also a consideration for many organizations large and small. I'
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by tom_b 17y ago
I think this is a huge part of the issue. I have worked professionally on the big three commercial rdbms (DB2 distributed - not mainframe -, SQL Server, and Oracle). I consider myself a SQL hacker with some DBA experience and knowledge, m
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Ask HN: Programming language power and 10 years to mastery
25 points by tom_b 18y ago|42 comments
470.
by tom_b 18y ago
I think the worst part of this is that "dull writing style is an academic survival skill because they think that is what editors want." I would argue with the author's assertion that "dull, impersonal prose" is not sought. During my CS gra